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Jerseys for d'Arnaud, den Dekker not uniform

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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- For those players with unorthodox names, New York's uniforms are anything but uniform.

Fifty-seven of the 58 Mets players in camp have their names written in all capital letters on the backs of their jerseys. The lone exception is Travis d'Arnaud, whose jersey sports a lowercase "D" with the rest of the letters in caps. That's because when clubhouse manager Kevin Kierst consulted the Blue Jays after d'Arnaud was traded, they told him that's how they always wrote it.

Not so for outfielder Matt den Dekker, whose Dutch name is also supposed to include a lowercase "D." His uniform reflected that spelling when he was a freshman at the University of Florida, but den Dekker requested a change because he thought his name looked "weird" with three lower-case letters and six capital letters. His uniforms have been in all caps ever since.

"People spell my name wrong all the time anyway," den Dekker said, laughing. "It's not hard to spell."